Long serving mental health nurse in Wakefield retires

A nurse from Fieldhead hospital, Wakefield retired today after 23 years of supporting people with mental health problems in the area. During her career specialist nurse therapist, Carrie Horsefield has seen hundreds of Wakefield people for individual therapy and also run many groups on anxiety, stress, assertiveness, confidence building, depression and EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) at both Fieldhead hospital and Horbury health centre.

Carrie’s colleagues at the South West Yorkshire Mental Health Trust came to say their goodbyes to her at a retirement party held at Fieldhead hospital.

Carrie, who is originally from Blackpool, started her mental health training at the old Stanley Royd hospital in 1984 before moving to the Adult Psychological Therapies Service at Fieldhead hospital in 1994. Prior to training as a mental health nurse she had worked in general nursing for many years, joining the NHS at 16 as a nursing cadet.

Carrie said, "I would like to say thank you to all my colleagues for giving me a good send off and thank you and farewell to all my past patients. During my career I’ve enjoyed helping people to cope with life better and to help them improve and to get back to how they used to be. It’s rewarding to give people coping strategies to enable them to be more independent, change their lives for the better and move forward.

Carrie continued, "I am retiring back to my roots, St Anne’s near Blackpool to be closer to my family and spend quality time with my partner. I hope to enjoy a well earned rest but realise that initially I will miss my colleagues and all my patients. I will now have more time to travel and see family and friends that I haven’t seen for sometime. I also hope to spend more time walking, visiting nature and bird reserves, and do things that I never really had time to do when working full time. I feel sure I will be able to adjust and enjoy my retirement!"